The subject matter herein relates generally to connector assemblies, and more particularly, to a connector assembly having a housing that holds contact modules.
With the ongoing trend toward smaller, faster, and higher performance electrical components such as processors used in computers, routers, switches, etc., it has become increasingly desirable for the electrical interfaces along the electrical paths to also operate at higher frequencies and at higher densities with increased throughput. For example, performance demands for video, voice and data drive input and output speeds of connectors within such systems to increasingly faster levels.
An electrical interconnection between devices is typically made by joining together complementary electrical connectors that are attached to the devices. One application environment that uses such electrical connectors is in high speed, differential electrical systems, such as those common in the telecommunications or computing environments. In a traditional approach, two circuit boards are interconnected with one another in a backplane and a daughter board configuration. However, similar types of connectors are also being used in cable connector to board connector applications. With the cable connector to board configuration, one connector, commonly referred to as a header, is board mounted and includes a plurality of signal contacts which connect to conductive traces on the board. The other connector, commonly referred to as a cable connector or a receptacle, includes a plurality of contacts that are connected to individual wires in one or more cables of a cable assembly. The receptacle mates with the header to interconnect the board with the cables so that signals can be routed therebetween.
However, such cable connectors are not without problems. Typically the connections of the wires to the contacts are susceptible to damage and/or failure, such as due to strain on the cables. One solution to this type of problem is to provide strain relief on the cables and/or the interface of the wires with the contacts. Such solutions have heretofore proven difficult. Additionally, as the throughput speed of such cable connectors increases, the cable connectors are more susceptible to performance degradation, such as from alien cross-talk.
A need remains for a cable connector that overcomes at least some of the existing problems of damage or failure at the interconnection of the wires with the cable connector in a cost effective and reliable manner.